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My new toy: 1986 Turbodiesel Jetta

Well I have a new toy, of sorts. Anyone who knows me very well knows that I have an affinity for diesel-powered vehicles, and the last 5 vehicles I’ve purchased (now 6!) have all been diesel-powered.

I’ve been in the market for a new diesel-powered “toy” for a while, with three specific purposes in mind:

1) An educational tool. I know how to change my oil, and I’ve replaced brake pads once, but beyond that, I know next to nothing about cars. And when my car needs repair, I depend on it, so I never have time to learn to do my own work on it. By having a secondary car, I can take all the time I need to learn to fix whatever is wrong with it.
2) As a daily-commuter in Mexico, where I plan to live for a year, starting this summer.
3) As a toy. Old diesel Jettas (especially the turbo models) are just fun to drive!

When I bought the car, the previous owner–a high school kid–told me of a number of issues, including a broken odometer (it reads 119022 miles, but is estimated to be closer to 150k), and a slow coolant leak. I wish I had known a bit more about what to look for when I bought it, because I probably could have talked him down in price drastically. As it turned out, I paid $2500 which is already at least $500 above book value, but the TDs are hard to find–and especially hard to find in Kansas. So I was willing to pay a premium to not drive half way across the country to pick the car up. I actually bought the car Dec 6, 2009 near Salina, and drove it home that day.

I finally registered the vehicle last week, and since then have driven it probably 150 miles, and now have quite a to-do list:

Coolant leak I can’t find any external leaks; seems likely I have a leaky head gasket, sending my coolant out the tail pipe. This makes it a perfect educational vehicle! Not so perfect for moving to Mexico in a timely fashion 🙂

Brakes The brakes are a bit squishy. I discovered the brake fluid reservoir is bone-dry. Oops. I hope there’s not a leak! At minimum, I’ll be bleeding the brake system, and putting in new brake fluid. No telling when that was last done anyway.

Parking brake The parking/emergency brake is very loose. Not a big deal in Kansas where it’s easy enough to just park in a flat spot, and leave the car in gear. But in Mexico, I want a working parking brake! Hopefully this is just as simple as tightening the cable…

Heater/AC The heater and A/C come on simultaneously. WTF?! I have no idea what might cause this, but I expect it’s just a wiring issue…

Tires I think exactly 2 of my tires match. The other 2 are odd-balls. And one is completely bald in one spot. I need new tires, as well as a desperate front-end alignment.

Tachometer The Tach does nothing. I’d like to fix this, as a prerequisite to some of the performance tuning I’d like to do later on. Having a tach is also just cool, even when it’s not absolutely necessary.

New Tunes The radio head-unit in the car is not factory original, but is horrendous, and the speakers don’t work. I’ve already ordered most of the components necessary to replace the entire sound system–but I won’t be installing any of it until my engine work is complete.

And when all of that is done, if I still feel like it’s worth throwing money at my car just for fun, I’d also like to:

Performance tweaks It’s allegedly possible to get close to 200 HP from this car with some minor tweaks, and for a very small financial investment. That’s pretty amazing, considering that it’s only rated at 68 HP from the factory!

New suspension The suspension in this car is pretty well shot already, so replacing my suspension lies somewhere between “necessity” and “want.”

Paint job I’d like to repaint the car (color suggestions anyone?) and remove the dents from the body

New wheels I already have 3 full sets of wheels for this thing… but I think there are some cooler designs out there. If I do a new paint job, I may as well top it off with brand new shiny wheels, too, right?